Welcome to the New I.T.

By now you’ve heard about how the New IT will make your life easier and solve all of your IT problems and issues, right? How it will give you more time back in your day, make you more productive than ever before, and allow you to actually take a lunch break and even leave work early (okay, maybe just on time) to get to your kid’s soccer game?

The better they get.

We have anticipated this revolutionary new world, where digital services not only enhance our lives but actually respond to our specific needs, for years. The wait is over. Today, BMC introduced an innovative experience that will truly change the way users interact with IT — a legitimate, authentic, New IT and a more simplified and streamlined process for IT service delivery.

But first…

Why do today’s users demand and deserve a better experience from IT? Because they’ve seen that a better experience exists—when they visit online marketplaces like Amazon, when they search for, purchase, and download apps to their smartphones and tablets, and when they try out some of the booming consumer-friendly businesses sprouting up around the US and around the world; all designed to meet individual needs, in real time, with reviews to report results.

Businesses like these succeed because they recognize a consistent and particular area of opportunity and rise to meet it. For example, Uber, the successful venture start up that matches drivers and passengers with car service and car shares, saw that resident taxi services in major cities weren’t adequately meeting the needs of commuters and other potential passengers. A simple, easy to use app allows more people to get where they need to go, faster and often in their choice of hired car.

Taskrabbit, another popular app, matches pre-screened individual service providers (including home improvement, errands, home office, and more) with customers who are too busy or okay in my case too under-skilled to complete the work themselves. Customers describe their need and set a deadline, and interested “taskrabbits” respond to open jobs. Needs are met quickly, easily, and at a fairly negotiated price, and customers post reviews after jobs are complete.

So what can IT learn about how to respond in this age of consumer-driven innovation?

Users don’t want to wait, especially if they know a service can and should be faster.

Users know what they want, and they are the best people to describe their needs.

Users want to share their experiences, good and bad.

IT can learn from users, and can put that knowledge to work to improve services.

IT can benefit from reduced friction with users, reduced downtime, increased productivity, and more time directed to other valuable projects.

The era of users passively (or impatiently) waiting for IT to respond to their needs, never sure of where they are in a queue or when they can expect a resolution, is over.

Location-aware. Resources are easy to find and services are matched to user parameters.

Collaborative and social. Through crowd-sourcing, commenting, and appealing to the “hive mind,” everyone benefits from shared information.

Formless. Getting IT needs met is simple, straightforward, and to the point.

Personalized. Appointments are made around users’ schedules and preferences.

Integrated. A help desk shouldn’t be isolated or difficult to find—it should be part of a larger suite of custom, contextually-appropriate offerings.

How can organizations deliver these kinds of best-in-class services? Successful outcomes are the result of a willingness to seek opportunities to better serve your users, to be flexible in meeting their needs, to adopt lean practices and methodologies, to keep pace with changing technology (like cloud delivery and ITOM integration), and to look for efficiencies and innovations at every step. When you embrace the New IT, you embrace the renewed significance of best practice service delivery and process automation in the age of digital business.

Be sure to check out our exciting new product innovations that can help organizations deliver these kinds of best-in-class services:

BMC MyIT 2.0BMC MyIT 2.0 is a next-generation self-service app that reduces IT friction, cuts support costs and boosts customer satisfaction. MyIT enables greater business user productivity through social collaboration, more freedom via context aware services and ease of use with formless IT. Now available with both Remedyforce and Remedy, MyIT 2.0 is currently in beta and will be widely available in April of 2014. Click here to learn more.

Remedyforce Winter 14 Release
Remedyforce Winter ‘14 is the latest release of our fast-growing cloud-based ITSM system built on the Salesforce.com platform. With this new release, MyIT 2.0 and AppZone 2.0 are now fully integrated with Remedyforce. Check out the new capabilities in Remedyforce Winter 14.

BMC AppZone 2.0
AppZone is a universal app store that gives employees easy access to cloud, mobile, custom and desktop applications. To drive adoption, employees can comment, rate and share apps they enjoy, allowing others to on-board applications based on peer selections. For IT, an enterprise app store provides the ability to procure, publish, secure and manage apps across the organization. More information on BMC AppZone 2.0.

Now that you know what the New IT can be, see how your organization can help define the new standard for service delivery and even join in on the conversation and register to win a Beats Headphones at #itforthewin. You might just get to leave work early after all.

These postings are my own and do not necessarily represent BMC's position, strategies, or opinion.

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David Manks, is Senior Director of Service Support products for BMC Software. David is responsible for driving the go to market strategy and key initiatives for the IT Service Management products and solutions within BMC.